Time Warner launching S.A. news channel

Time Warner Cable confirmed Tuesday that it will be launching a 24-hour news channel for San Antonio.

As to the when, where, why and who’s who of the upcoming channel, local cable officials remain mum.

“We will provide more information in the near future,” said Melissa Sorola, director of public relations for Time Warner-Texas.

The cable system already has a 24-hour news channel in Austin, TWC News on Channel 8, which was initiated 15 years ago, and provides local and national news seven days a week, along with weather, sports and traffic. Delivering the information are local teams of anchors, reporters, meteorologists and sportscasters.

Such a news outlet was tried years ago in San Antonio by Time Warner — but didn’t last long. In 2003, the cable system partnered with Belo Corp. and launched News 9 San Antonio. Seasoned newscaster Leslie Komet (on the cable channel’s set in the above 2003 photo with her news boss Alan Little) was a top anchor for the outlet.

It was shut down in 2004, however, because it couldn’t draw enough interest to sustain it amid the tough competition of other S.A. news operations.

Will the situation be different the second time around? After all, there are even more newscast rivals today on S.A.’s network affiliates.

Also: Is there enough local news to support such a 24-hour venture? Hey, even CNN, Fox News and MSNBC constantly scramble for creative ways to fill their time.

What do you think? Would you welcome a 24-hour local news service on cable?